Ask before you build.
Six questions that cut the failure rate of major efforts. Ask them at the start. Keep asking as you go.
Six questions, asked before the work starts
Q1. What problem are we trying to solve? Most teams never pin down the real problem. Start here, or you’re working on the wrong thing.
Q2. Who has solved this problem before? Find out who already tackled it and build on their shoulders before you start solving.
Q3. What does failure look like? Teams assume success. Define failure up front so you spot the signs in the heat of battle.
Q4. What does success look like? On time, on budget and delivering, measured against this effort’s own goals, with a check that the organization hasn’t shifted underneath you.
Q5. What did we learn the last time we tried? Hard problems are rarely a first attempt, and organizational memory is short. Find what earlier teams learned before you start.
Q6. How will the stakeholders feel about it? How people feel decides a solution’s fate. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Know it stakeholder by stakeholder, start to finish.
Sharper with AI.
Q1 keeps you from buying a tool in search of a problem. Q2 finds who already made it work. Q3 asks what happens when the tool is confidently wrong. Q4 demands measured results, not activity. Q5 brings back what the last pilot taught. Q6 asks whether the people who must use it will trust it.